Victim of golf club attack speaks from hospital bed

FORT MYERS: Deputies on the hunt for a couple of guys they say tried to mug a man in Fort Myers and then brutally beat him. We spoke to the victim Wednesday night as we was recovering in his hospital bed.

Ivan Parris says is used to being in the hospital. He suffers from congestive heart failure, among other serious illnesses.

But he said this visit was different.

"A guy approached me with a golf club and he told me to give him my wallet and whatever else I had," he said.

The 42-year-old was out on Palm Beach Boulevard, just walking to meet a friend.

"I've been walking the streets of New Jersey and New York my whole life. I wasn't really threatened, I should have been," said Parris.

The viscous attack happened late Tuesday night.

Right before leaving his house hours earlier in the day, Parris gave his aunt Dora a hug goodbye.

"He kissed us good night and the last thing I said to him was ‘be careful out there,'" she said.

Later, she got the call from Lee County deputies that Parris had been robbed and brutally beaten.

"They told me he'd been attacked and was drifting in and out of consciousness," said Dora.

Detectives say two men with a golf club beat and kicked Parris, trying to get his wallet. But then, a passing car stopped.

"I heard the brakes of a car and these two guys stopped and were like, ‘Hey! What are you doing?'" said Parris.

The robbers stopped beating him and ran away.

The driver of the car put Parris inside and sped away to get him help.

Parris says those two men drove him to Circle K just a few miles away and dropped him off. The clerk inside the store called 9-1-1. Those anonymous men left before deputies got there.

Paramedics rushed Parris to the hospital. His skull is fractured, his face swollen and he has nine staples in his head.

"They're not sure if there's any brain swelling or bleeding yet," Parris said.

And even after everything that happened, he says he's lucky.

"If those guys hadn't stopped, I don't think I would have left that spot," he said.

While detectives hunt for his attackers, Parris hopes to recover and is thanking his heroes.

"Thank you. There are some good people still out there," he said.

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